Abstract
Strengthening strategies and structural rehabilitation of existing buildings with innovative materials and techniques are today one of the main activities in the field of structural engineering. Externally bonded Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM), materials are spreading as an alternative strengthening technique to the more traditional Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) ones, especially for masonry elements. This research focuses on the assessment of the shear strength of in-plane FRCM-strengthened masonry walls by means of code predictions and numerical results, with particular attention on the interpretation of diagonal compression tests simulated by means of Finite Element (FE) models. Firstly, the various approaches commonly adopted for the interpretation of diagonal compression tests in terms of shear strength were examined, since codes give generally provisions in terms of maximum shear force, while several experimental and numerical results of diagonal compression tests are available in literature. Then, the numerical simulations of diagonal compression tests obtained by several FE analyses in a previous work were examined in light of these different approaches; the corresponding predictions of the shear force are compared with code indications in order to individuate the most reliable approach both for the un-strengthened and the FRCM-strengthened walls. For the latter ones, a detailed analysis of the actual strain levels in the reinforcement was carried out, too, by means of FE analysis.
Highlights
Masonry constructions are a large part of the worldwide existing buildings, especially in Italian city centers; they represent an important historical and cultural heritage which needs to be preserved.The recent earthquakes, especially the last large ones that hit the Central Italy with several events in2016–2017, confirmed the high seismic vulnerability of masonry constructions (Cescatti et al, 2020 [1]).This raised the interest of the scientific community to improve the masonry seismic capacity through the use of new techniques and innovative materials
In the following, the reliability of these predictions will be checked by means of the comparisons with several numerical analyses concerning the simulation of diagonal compression tests on both un-strengthened and Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM)-strengthened masonry walls
In (Lignola et al, 2019 [15]), several simulations of the diagonal compression tests for un-strengthened and strengthened masonry walls with FRCM systems were analyzed by means of a Finite Element (FE) non-linear model implemented in the software DIANA TNO
Summary
Masonry constructions are a large part of the worldwide existing buildings, especially in Italian city centers; they represent an important historical and cultural heritage which needs to be preserved. FRCM-strengthened walls according to different approaches suggested in literature; comparing the shear strengths obtained by the numerical models with the theoretical values given by code formulations and assessing which approach is the most suitable to determine the shear capacity from the diagonal compression test. Since the panels investigated in the numerical analyses are made of low strength masonry blocks, the authors assume that cracks may intersect the masonry unit and the mortar joints as it is typically observed in experimental diagonal compression tests For this reason and considering that the commentary (IBCC, 2019 36) allows to use Equation (3) for both irregular and regular masonries, it will be used for predict the shear strength of the simulated walls. Equation (3) depends on the masonry’s tensile strength, ft , which, according to the Italian code (IBC, 2018 [35]), can be directly assessed by means of diagonal compression tests
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